Seramban is a village of around 70 people in the southwest portion of the island of Lombok in Indonesia. Due to the location of this village, digging a well was prohibitively difficult. Two previous water systems have been installed in the past: one that was destroyed by a flood and the other that doesn’t provide nearly enough water for the needs of the community. In the dry season, residents have had to walk to the river to bathe, gather water for cooking and drinking, and to wash clothes.
With funding from the Government of Australia as well as private supporters, we were able to develop a spring located about a kilometer above the village. Our team worked together with the people of the village to build a tank above the spring, install 750 meters of pipe and build a retention tank in the village. This new water system is able to provide around 2,000 liters of water per hour to the 17,000 liter tank in the village. This is enough supply to allow for the entire village’s drinking, washing, and bathing needs.
Our team worked with the village every step of the project. Our goal is not to come and do something for those in need, but rather to empower villages to solve the problems they face. This creates a greater sense of ownership and pride in the end product. The people of Seramban worked hard to complete this project. The source tank is 2 meters by 2.5 meters and 2.5 meters deep all below ground. That’s a lot of dirt and rocks that needed to be removed and it was all done by hand. The pipe that connects the source tank to the reservoir tank in the village is more than 700 meters long, with some buried below rice paddies, some above ground on pillars and even a 10 meter river crossing. We were all grateful to see water flowing into the village tank after all that work.
